Showing posts with label taste of santa fe. Show all posts
Showing posts with label taste of santa fe. Show all posts

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Taste of Santa Fe 2010: Gala Dinner

Returning to the Santa Fe trip that I took along with some bloggers for Taste of Santa Fe, the annual fundraising gastronomic event for the New Mexico History Museum...

The gala dinner was actually held inside the New Mexico History Museum. The wall facing the entrance bore a quote from Abraham Lincoln:

We cannot escape history. We ... will be remembered in spite of ourselves.
The cocktail reception was delayed a bit by a short thunder storm (the locals told us this happens pretty much every day around 5-6 pm. Wow!) but once that ends attendees mingled, ate, and drank on the damp grass.
A tequila cocktail made by mixologist Daniel Gonzales from Secreto Bar at Hotel St. Francis was garnished with a parmesan crisp.
Chef John Sedlar of Rivera Restaurant in LA was a guest chef at both the gala dinner and the main event the next day. As appetizers at the gala dinner, chef Sedlar prepared his famous tortillas florales. Here he infuses flavors from the other Indian cuisine. You know, the one with the dot. One of the tortillas were topped with cucumber raita.

Chef Mick Hug from Buffalo Thunder Resort started the night off well with some appetizers:
Seared scallops served alongside crispy goat cheese with dried cherries poached in a spice wine.
During the gala dinner they had chefs from four restaurants prepare a couple of dishes each, and attendees will vote for their favorite.


We grabbed food from the different stations and went to find a table. There were quite a few people in attendance, occupying both the first and second floor of the museum.

I loved the creative centerpieces they had made with celery stalks and red chile.

The highlight of the meal was the Chile RelleƱo del Cielo from Hotel St. Francis’ Tabla de Los Santos Restaurant. The green chiles were stuffed with mushrooms and served in a pinto bean-garlic sauce.

For desserts: chocolate cupcake with local wild cherries from Embudo Station was so good, I think I had three (what? they were small!). The flavors of the cherries really came through even among the chocolate and frosting.
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More coverage of Taste of Santa Fe:
TravelLady Magazine (with a lot more on the history of New Mexico and Santa Fe)
FoodGPS

My post on the main event.

Sunday, August 1, 2010

Recap: Taste of Santa Fe 2010

Taste of Santa Fe was the annual fundraiser for the New Mexico History Museum, apparently a pretty small event that had hibernated over the recent years. This year, though, they relaunched Taste of Santa Fe bigger than ever, gearing it up to be one of the premier food events in the area. For that same reason, they invited Angeleno bloggers who are willing to go to Santa Fe to join them for the event (Disclaimer: we received free tickets to the events and lodging, but paid for own transport).

The main event took place at the Santa Fe Railyard Park on July 17.


It was a hot afternoon in Santa Fe (about 94 degrees!), and having been spoiled in Southern California, we had a hard time bearing with the sun and the heat. That's why I immediately veered towards to gelato booth and got the Blackberry Cabernet Sorbetto from O-Gelato, which had just opened on July 3.
Their other flavors included Ispaha, made with Parisian rosewater and raspberry, and Harry's Peach Bellini.

Mole and taquitos were abound, but there were more than New Mexican cuisine to be found at Taste of Santa Fe, although of course many incorporate ingredients and influences from the area. The resorts and fine dining restaurants participated with offerings such as seared tuna.

A non-VIP ticket to Taste of Santa Fe only gave us one drink, which was unfortunate considering the weather. I had to choose carefully. Since the wines weren't local and I tried many of the beers from the Santa Fe Brewing Co., I opted for the Chicken Killer Barley Wine Ale (yes, partly due to its awesome name).
This was fairly balanced with a bit of both maltiness and hop without being too bitter for me.
You can buy fork up cash for more drinks, both alcoholic and nonalcoholic, though we didn't do so that day.

A sample of the homemade lemonade from Flying Star Cafe was such a lifesaver in the sweltering heat, I even stopped by the actual cafe to buy a full glass.

One of my favorite tastes that day was this BBQ ribs with red chile honey glaze and green chile cole slaw from Josh's Barbecue.

This year's event brought Chef John Sedlar of Rivera Restaurant in LA for a cooking demonstration. Chef Sedlar grew up in Santa Fe and has also given us some restaurant recommendations for the area.
He prepared a dish called Scallops Arabesque which calls for Vadouvan, an Indian spice blend.
Chef Sedlar suggests using grapeseed oil since it can go to high temperature and doesn't burn.

Since Chef Sedlar had also made this dish for a Los Angeles Mag's event, you can find the full recipe for it here.

Chile, both red and green, can be found everywhere, including on your kettle corn. Kernel's Kettle Corn which normally parks its cart on the Plaza, offers three flavors: original, red chile, and green chile. Both sweet and spicy, these were actually pretty addictive.

Can you see the red chili powder?


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